1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a power supply device having a plurality of stacked battery cells.
2. Related Art
In hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, a power supply device as a drive source of an electric motor is mounted, for example. For this type of related power supply device, there is one disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-55885. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a power supply device 50 includes a battery assembly 51 in which a plurality of stacked battery cells 52 are arranged in two rows. A pair of electrodes (a plus electrode and a minus electrode) 52a and 52b are projectingly provided on the upper surface of each of the battery cells 52. The pair of electrodes 52a and 52b of the battery cell 52 adjacent to each other are connected to each other by a connection terminal 53 and two pinching terminals 54 and 55. The connection terminal 53 is formed by a bus bar and has a pair of contact piece portions 53a and 53b corresponding to the directions of the electrodes 52a and 52b to be connected to the connection terminal 53. The two pinching terminals 54 and 55 are each formed by a bus bar and pinch any one of the electrodes 52a and 52b and any one of the contact piece portions 53a and 53b of the connection terminal 53. The pinching terminal 54 has an integrally provided tuning fork terminal 54A. The tuning fork terminal 54A is connected to an electric wire W for voltage detection by press-fitting. The connection terminal 53 and the two pinching terminals 54 and 55 are integrally fixed by an attachment member 56 formed of a synthetic resin.
In the above related example, each of the battery cells 52 of the battery assembly 51 is connected in series through the connection terminal 53 and the two pinching terminals 54 and 55. Voltage information at an electrode position of each of the battery cells 52 is output through the electric wire W for voltage detection connected to the tuning fork terminal 54A. According to this constitution, an output state of each of the battery cells 52 can be detected.